WNYW Talks to Charles Oakley About Incident at MSG

He’s as beloved a Knick as any, but on Wednesday, he got dragged from the Garden by nearly a dozen security guards after a brief altercation.

Oakley has since refuted those accusations and said that he was simply sitting in his seat – conveniently a few rows away from Dolan – for about four minutes before security told him he had to leave.

“He was the best guy we thought we could find to run the New York Knicks, and I made an agreement with him”, Dolan said.

Sign up to our daily newsletter for your chance to win. In the foreground, New York-bred tennis legend John McEnroe looks on, as does Dolan.

Dolan has an ongoing feud with Oakley, who was briefly denied admission to a game a year ago before ultimately being allowed inside.

The 6ft 8in Oakley was a rugged enforcer openly appreciated by teammates, from Michael Jordan in Chicago to Patrick Ewing in NY, and he remains respected by current players. “He was a great Knick and we hope he gets some help soon”. As a result, Dolan has fired MSG’s vice president of security, who he says “wasn’t working out”, and this latest incident was “probably the last straw”. On Friday, Dolan enacted the ban on Oakley that may-or may not-be a lifetime sentence for a player that is among the most popular in franchise history. He also oversaw 24/7 security of Obama’s Chicago residence as Special Agent in Charge of Secret Service – Chicago.

One thing is for sure, today may have been the day the New York Knicks committed PR suicide. Oakley appeared on a NY radio station to apologize for the incident on Thursday. Oakley has been notably absent when the Knicks have honored past players.

Now, the Knicks have reportedly been circulating witness statements that support their claims that Oakley was being verbally abusive that night.

Additionally, Dolan said he was firing Frank Benedetto, former senior vice president for security at MSG, in connection with the incident with Oakley. “But those behaviors of being physically and verbally abusive – those are personality problems”.

The law enforcement source said police officers brought Oakley upstairs to an office and then received a phone call from Knicks president Phil Jackson, who asked the cops to allow Oakley to take a call from National Basketball Association legend Michael Jordan.